Limiting participants at League/Conference Meets

E

ENA2

Active member
Just Curioius, I have seen only 2 conferences that are not allowing all runners in their conference to participate at the Conference Meet. Some are limiting those in the varsity race (7-12) as usual, but most of those are then allowing a JV race or an OPEN race - sometimes both. Many of the athletes who may not be in the top group, have already had some competitive opportunities taken away at other meets due to keeping numbers down. Most of these kids will not be running at Districts so the conference meet is their "Big" meet of the year. In The two meets that I saw that are limiting participants, there will be less than 100 runners in all races and they are on Saturday. Just wondering why a conference would do this if it's not due to COVID-19 regulations, not about the course being too narrow or not about running out of daylight.
 
 
One of the beautiful things about the sport is that you can run everyone. I don't understand why a conference would not run everyone, but friends of mine that at "football" people think it's not really a sport if you can put 30 min runners out there at the same time as 15 min runners. Another friend of mine has been turned onto CC and Track over the past 10 years. He would hear me talk about my kids running cross country, so one Saturday, they were having an invite near his house and he decided to go watch. Called me and said anyone that thinks kids are not anything but wonderful needs to go watch a cross country meet. Best sportsmanship he had ever seen in his life.
 
One I heard the AD's were only going to allow 7 in JV meet so girls race would be about 30 and the boys 50 but coaches pushed back and no all will run race will still only be 50 in girls and less than 100 in boys.
 
I heard Kenston is only allowing 12 runners in varsity race and no JV race. Isn't the WRC big schools? Why only run 12 kids in what will be most of their last meet of the year?
 
Our varsity conference meet Saturday is only 7 runners per team. Two races, one boys, one girls, all D. 1 schools.
Through the organization of one of our member schools (and with the blessing of the ADs), a JV meet was set up at a different location on Thursday. So ultimately, our JV race is Thursday, our JHS Friday, and our Varsity Saturday.
I'm fine with all of it, and am just glad the kids have a chance to race.
 
If a school like Kenston can’t run everyone then move it to a school that can handle all the kids. Riverside put on 2 very well large meets with zero issues. Why penalize the kids when the school officials can’t handle it.
 
Cardinal94 said:
If a school like Kenston can’t run everyone then move it to a school that can handle all the kids. Riverside put on 2 very well large meets with zero issues. Why penalize the kids when the school officials can’t handle it.
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Conference ADs overwhelmingly voted to limit participants to 10 per school and we pushed that to 12. This wasn't a Kenston choice but a Conference choice. Thanks.
 
I've heard that the GMC is allowing 7 varsity and 7 JV runners. Tickets for up to 4 family members will be purchased online and no other fans or teammates are allowed to attend and cheer. Since East had an early season meet canceled by the Butler County Health Dept. they are being very cautious with everything. I would imagine that it will be the same caution for the districts and I've heard only 2 tickets per athlete.
I could see the caution if there had been any issues with Covid and it's spread at competitions but there have been none that I'm aware of! Let folks come and cheer with masks and social distancing. 10,000 people can go to watch pro football but we can't a few hundred people at a XC race..
 
I've been to some of those big meets, and I am also unaware of any problems that have arisen. I have, however, noticed a wide range of compliance. In some cases, few if any of the fans are capable of or interested in maintaining social distancing when the runners go by. As a coach, it has made me very uncomfortable. With numbers on the rise throughout the state, and the postseason approaching, I would be very cautious with fans.
I personally think they should let everyone run, otherwise there was no point in having the season to begin with. This has never been a sport where we only run the best. It's one of the many qualities that I believe make cross country better than other sports. Having said that, I understand the AD's making their decision, I just vehemently disagree with it.
 
CoachI said:
Conference ADs overwhelmingly voted to limit participants to 10 per school and we pushed that to 12. This wasn't a Kenston choice but a Conference choice. Thanks.
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Ours everyone gets to run, but they are keeping race sizes under 100. We have three boys races.
 
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